He's Definitely Your Dog
by onlymystory
Summary: "It's a dog, Derek. Feed it, put it outside, bring it to Deaton in the morning." "It's judging me." Derek glares at the dog, who merely tilts its head and regards Derek appraisingly. Derek swears the stupid thing is rolling its eyes at him. "So am I, Derek. So am I."


**EDIT UPDATE: I'm not actually sure what happened here. When I uploaded the document, all the spacing and such was right. It was late & I didn't doublecheck the posted version but apparently nothing was properly spaced out. So sorry about that and thanks to the guest who reviewed with the heads up. (Next time y'all gotta tell me this stuff sooner so I can fix it! I'm on AO3 mostly so I don't notice as fast).**

**For Min7Girl.** **Written for a Sterek Campaign prompt. **  
_• - Scott, Stiles and Isaac are staring down at big puppy and Stiles doesn't want it to go to the pound, But can't see himself taking care of what would be a very big dog. Scott can't take it because Allison wouldn't like it. Isaac suggests Derek might be a good solution since he's alone at Hale house with Nothing but Peter for company. Stiles doesn't like the idea since he doesn't think Derek takes care of the pack well enough. And starts snuggling the puppy._  
_Puppy floats between Derek and stiles place. In winter months he sleeps at stiles house. In summer months he sleeps with Derek. When there is trouble he protects Stiles but will also fight with Derek._ _Stiles and Derek fight about the dog nonstop mainly about who it belongs to, neither wish to claim ownership, "Well it's your dog!", "Who bought it?", "Who spends more time with it?" Stuff like that. Fighting like an old married couple, about a child that they don't want to admit to being very devoted to and draws them together in fluffy adorable ways._ **I minimized the pack's involvement and shortened the time it took the dog to bring our boys together but I hope it's still what you wanted!**

* * *

"I need dog food and a water bowl," says Derek as soon as Stiles answers the phone with a groggy 'what the fuck do you want at 3am, Derek'.

"You what?" asks Stiles sleepily.

"Pay attention," snaps Derek. Usually Stiles jumps right to focusing when he calls late at night. Granted this isn't a life or death situation but still, it's not like he doesn't know that Stiles probably only went to bed 20 minutes ago after crashing from X-box games. "Dog food. Water bowl. Possibly a collar. I haven't decided on that."

Derek can practically hear Stiles yawning across the line.

"Dude," says Stiles finally. "I know I make the dog jokes sometimes but I'm really not up for being some sort of humiliation kink and bondage booty call. There's supposed to be a conversation before going there. So not tonight."

Derek doesn't even know how to respond to that. "There is a dog sitting in my living room, Stiles," is what he finally goes with. "A large Husky sort of dog that has been whining all night and now it and Isaac are giving me those stupid puppy eyes and if you don't get over here and take care of it, the stupid thing is going to shed all over my leather couch."

"I told you not to buy leather."

"Stiles!"

"What?! It's a dog, Derek. Feed it, put it outside, bring it to Deaton in the morning."

Derek hears Stiles moving back under the covers and he huffs in exasperation. "I don't do dogs."

"You do now," answers Stiles.

"It's judging me." Derek glares at the dog, who merely tilts its head and regards Derek appraisingly. Derek swears the stupid thing is rolling its eyes at him.

"So am I, Derek. So am I. I'm going to sleep."

"If you aren't over here in ten minutes, I'm going to tell Scott that your first thought to a 3am phone call was me asking you for sex and that you didn't actually turn me down," says Derek before Stiles can hang up on him.

Stiles groans but the sounds of him getting out of bed are obvious. "I hate you so much."

"Eight minutes," returns Derek with forced cheer. He hangs up and absolutely does not spend any time thinking about the fact that Stiles still didn't say anything about never wanting sex with him or not liking him like that. He doesn't.

* * *

The dog, whom Derek generously calls "dog" or "hey mutt", clearly has a favorite, because it latches on to Stiles the minute he walks in the door.

"You are gorgeous," coos Stiles, crouching just inside the loft to greet the Husky. "Is the big bad wolf being mean to you?"

"Red Riding Hood jokes? Really?" Derek is not impressed.

"I was thinking of the three little pigs at the moment, but I can go with the other," responds Stiles, refusing to look away from the dog and acknowledge Derek.

Derek ignores the continued coos that Stiles keep emitting at the dog and picks up the bowls and food that Stiles brought, taking them to the kitchen to fill.

"What's his name?" asks Stiles.

"No idea. He doesn't have tags or anything."

"So what are you gonna call him?"

Derek shrugs. "Dog."

Stiles gapes at him. "You can't call him dog. That would be like if I just called you wolfie all the time."

Derek gives Stiles a dirty look. He called him wolfie just this morning when Scott was fighting the idea of training on the weekends.

"He needs a name, Derek."

"You name him then." Derek could care less. Though now Stiles will probably name the dog something ridiculous like Batman.

Stiles thinks for a minute. "Rawls." He looks down at the dog. "Do you think you could be a Rawls?"

The dog huffs at Stiles' and licks his face.

"I guess he likes it," says Stiles.

Derek bites back a laugh at the pair and sets the water and food on the ground for Rawls to eat later. "So if he'd shown up with a girl dog too, you'd name 'em Dan & Ann?"

Derek is definitely not prepared for the way Stiles positively beams at him.

"You just became my new favorite person," says Stiles, without a trace of sarcasm.

"You have good taste," is what Derek offers in return.

Stiles beckons for Derek to come over to the couch. "You should pet Rawls for a minute."

Derek sighs and stifles a yawn. "It's past 4am, Stiles. Can't I pet him tomorrow?"

"Fine. I'll be the only one to love the dog."

Derek growls in exasperation but he walks over and shoves Stiles over on the couch, sitting down next to him. "Five minutes, then I'm going to bed and you're going home."

"Agreed."

Eight minutes later Stiles' face is pressed into Derek's shoulder and he's lightly snoring and Rawls is sprawled across both of their laps.

Derek looks down at Rawls. "I could move you to the floor you know," he whispers.

Rawls opens one eye, as if to say, please, like you aren't exactly where you want to be."

Stiles nuzzles against Derek.

"Yeah alright," he says, giving in. He is really comfortable after all.

* * *

"Derek!" yells Stiles from the other side of the loft door.

Derek groans as he gets off the couch. They made a schedule for a reason. Stiles takes care of Rawls during the weekends and Derek has him on weekdays. He opens the door to see a flushed Stiles and a slightly panting Rawls.

"What?" asks Derek, resolutely ignoring the way he wants to see how far the flush goes.

"Rawls kept getting away from me and heading here," explains Stiles, leaning against the door frame. "Can I have water?"

"You didn't bring water with you on a walk?"

"Look Oscar the Grouch-Wolf," snarks Stiles, "gimme water. Also food. I'm hungry."

Derek pushes the door the rest of the way open and walks back into the kitchen, muttering under his breath. "Yes, Stiles, please come in and help yourself. What's mine is yours. I wasn't enjoying a little peace and quiet. I'd love to have you sweat all over the furniture."

Stiles looks like it's taking everything in him to keep from commenting. Clearly it's not enough. "I can think of ways to sweat all over the couch," he says with a wide grin.

"You're ridiculous," says Derek. He fills a bowl with water for Rawls and sets it on the ground before handing a glass to Stiles and throwing a banana at him.

"I like granola bars," says Stiles.

"It's a banana granola bar."

"Where's the granola?"

"I ground it really fine," answers Derek.

Stiles rolls his eyes and shoves half the banana in his mouth at once. It's disgusting. "In the future, you should have granola bars," he says, talking through the mashed fruit.

"Oh should I?"

"Yup," nods Stiles sagely. "The kind with smores. Or no, chocolate peanut butter! Those are my favorite."

"And obviously my goals in life are to make you happy," says Derek.

"I'm glad we understand each other," returns Stiles. He jokes around for a few more minutes, then Rawls starts whining at the door. "Guess that's our cue. I'm taking him to play baseball at the park."

Derek grabs his jacket off the couch.

"You're coming with?"

"Well I can't exactly let you try and convince him to be a Mets fan," says Derek as an excuse.

Stiles laughs and leads them out the door.

Two days later he leaves a pillow on Derek's couch with the Mets logo emblazoned across both sides.

And if Derek buys a box of chocolate peanut butter granola bars on his next grocery run, it's only because he wants them.

* * *

Derek is in the middle of helping Boyd try to separate Jackson and Isaac—who have switched from sparring to an outright brawl—when Rawls comes running into the cleaning and tackles all four of them to the ground.

Derek rolls away and gets up to yell at Rawls, while wondering how he got away from Stiles, when he notices Boyd trying not to laugh. He looks over to see Rawls wrapped around Jackson and Isaac, licking at both their faces in turn. Both teens are squirming under the dog but Jackson's hand keeps rubbing Rawls' head and Isaac isn't pushing the dog away.

Stiles runs up, panting for breath a minute later. "Sorry," he heaves. "Damn dog got away from me."

"When doesn't he get away from you?" asks Derek, without any real malice.

"I like to think of it as giving Rawls his freedom," retorts Stiles.

"Our dog is an anarchist," says Derek without thinking.

Stiles gives him a slow smile. "Our dog?" His voice is the tiniest bit teasing but he mostly sounds happy about the idea.

"Your dog," corrects Derek, though he tosses Stiles a water bottle and smiles as he said it. "Any time Rawls interrupts training to instigate a puppy pile, he's definitely your dog."

At his words, Jackson huffs and pushes Rawls away. "We aren't having a puppy pile." But he still reaches down and helps Isaac up off the ground.

Derek counts the moment as a success anyway.

Apparently satisfied with the results of his sneak attack, Rawls walks away from the boys and goes up to take his usual place between Lydia and Allison on the top steps leading into the loft.

"Ten minute break," yells Derek, much to the relief of his pack.

Erica sits up on the steps to pet Rawls, without flinching at Allison's greeting.

Stiles comes over and elbows Derek, pointing at the way Scott, Isaac, and Boyd are talking as they pet Rawls. "He's pretty good at this," he offers quietly.

Derek nudges him back. "It helps when someone keeps 'accidentally' letting him off the leash when Rawls' is close enough to hear everyone."

"Who me?" asks Stiles innocently.

"Nah, I heard it was some guy named Biles," jokes Derek. And then privately thinks to himself that there's nothing quite as attractive as the way Stiles throws his head back and laughs out loud.

While Stiles recovers, Derek watches as Rawls keeps pushing at his pack members until everyone but himself and Stiles are gathered on the stairs.

"Dad bought chocolate chips for pancakes tomorrow," says Stiles after a few minutes.

"I told him not to," notes Derek. "Blueberry pancakes taste good too." He'd already agreed a while ago to come over to see Rawls and to help with some yard work.

Stiles shrugs. "Yeah, well, Dad just wants the excuse to have chocolate at breakfast. And he likes you."

"Your dad doesn't like me," protests Derek. "I'm just useful."

"Nope. He likes you," insists Stiles. So quietly that Derek almost misses it, Stiles adds "I still like you the most though."

Derek smiles to himself and leans into Stiles just a little bit as Rawls comes over seeking attention. He likes Stiles best too, and he's really happy Rawls keeps bringing them together.

* * *

Derek isn't really sure how it happens. Somewhere between Rawls barking at the door at 3am and now, two months later, Stiles went from a sometimes pack member and teen that Derek was trying not to have a crush on, to his best friend.

They don't make excuses to hang out anymore either. Even the pack has taken to texting Stiles with questions for Derek, or calling Derek if they need Stiles' opinion on something.

Last weekend, Derek had knocked on the Stilinski's front door only to be greeted by John with a cup of coffee made the way he likes it.

It didn't register until he was home that he'd known to walk in and set the table for the usual pancake breakfast. He still isn't sure what to think about the fact that his place at the table is regularly set on weekends.

He knows Stiles bought the caramel creamer he likes and keeps it for his visits.

Derek buys boxes of chocolate peanut butter granola bars, one of which always ends up on the counter by a water bottle when Stiles brings Rawls by on their daily afternoon walk.

For a while he insisted he just liked granola bars too and didn't mind sharing. Even if he is allergic to peanuts.

The thing is, Stiles is easy to talk to. He reminds Derek a lot of Laura, in the way he has a smartass response to everything, but ask him to be serious and he's more insightful than most.

Stiles doesn't belittle Derek's work with the pack, he just makes suggestions and is encouraging when they work.

They have plans to go to a baseball game in a week.

Stiles keeps bringing little things over to the loft, initially saying he was cleaning out the attic. Now he just walks in with blankets or coffee machines or a new book and launches into the story of why something is perfect for Derek.

Derek stops worrying too about whether his feelings are wrong or if he should push Stiles away to keep him from getting hurt. They're friends. Good friends. And he's happy with the routines they've fallen into.

Stiles and Derek walk in from outside after a visit with Peter at his apartment and look down at their pack asleep on pillows on the floor; Rawls sprawls across the others and looks up at them contentedly.

Stiles elbows Derek lightly and whispers. "Guess Rawls finally made puppy piles a thing."

Derek grins at him. "Want to join 'em?"

"Absolutely," answers Stiles, snuggling up against Scott one on edge of the pile.

Scott mutters in his sleep and throws an arm over Stiles.

Derek moves a little more awkwardly but he makes a place for himself next to Stiles, letting their legs tangle together. One hand rests against Stiles' chest, while the other loops over Stiles' and Scott's heads to ruffle Isaac's hair.

"It's kind of nice," whispers Stiles.

"Yeah," agrees Derek. He decides not to second guess the thought most prevalent in his mind and leans forward and kisses Stiles. He makes the kiss light and sweet, but just enough to show it means something to him. "But maybe next time it can be just us."

Derek worries that Stiles is going to withdraw or try and find a nice way to turn him down. But then Stiles' hand comes up to curl around Derek's, holding both hands over Stiles' heart.

"I'd like that," says Stiles with a smile.

Derek falls asleep a few minutes later and he can't help but think how lucky he is that Rawls came around and showed Derek what he needed most in his life.

* * *

**Notes: Rawls is for Wilson Rawls, author of "Where the Red Fern Grows". It is both Stiles' and Derek's favorite dog book.**

**Derek does learn to call Stiles in the middle of the night for a booty call—even when they're both in the same bed. Stiles will usually get out of bed, strip off any remaining clothing, put on a trench coat and go out into the hallway so he can knock on the door and say 'hey sailor' when Derek opens it.** **Derek only found that weird until the first time Stiles walked in the house wearing dress whites and threw a pair at Derek.**

** They might also have a tradition now of going to San Diego a couple times a year. Coronado just has really nice views.**

**Rawls does shed on the leather furniture. Scott and Erica leave about the same amount of hair lying around though so Derek gets over it.**

**When Rawls gets one of the police dogs pregnant two years later, Stiles and Derek absolutely adopt two of the pups and name them Dan and Ann.**

**None of the dogs are allowed to watch the movie they were named after. Derek doesn't want to traumatize them.**


End file.
